


you were the song stuck in my head (every song that i’ve ever loved)

by connabeth



Series: tumblr prompts [6]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mortal, F/M, First Kiss, Mutual Pining, Teen Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, a lot of soft shit, conniving friends (and mom)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26226073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connabeth/pseuds/connabeth
Summary: It is in fact all about the Yearning. A story of oblivious best friends, mutual pining, miscommunication, and meddling friends and family.orthe one where Percy and Annabeth have their first kiss and don't talk about it for three years.prompts:an unexpected kiss that shocks the one receiving it"I am not playing truth or dare."
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Series: tumblr prompts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1838725
Comments: 19
Kudos: 165
Collections: favorite on PJO





	you were the song stuck in my head (every song that i’ve ever loved)

**Author's Note:**

> Did I edit this? No<3  
> thanks to @perseust and @riptide-anaklusmoss on tumblr for the prompts!!

The chime of the front door diverted his attention away from the TV screen. The anxious bouncing of his knees halted as he rose to his feet.

“Percy, sweetheart, can you get the door?” his mom called, voice faintly filtering into the room from the kitchen.

She could have, in fact, gotten the door―she was _far_ closer to it than he was. But he suspected she wanted him and Annabeth to have a moment alone. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful or annoyed. His mother had become increasingly less subtle about her attempts to push the two teens together over the years. Percy figured she’d known about the crush he harbored on his best friend long before he had, if the twinkling eyes and knowing smirks he pretended to ignore on the daily were anything to go by.

And, _fuck_ , if he didn’t want to make his mom (and himself) happy by getting to call Annabeth his girlfriend. But it wasn’t that simple. They had kissed once, in middle school, at some stupid beach party hosted by stupid Matt Sloan during a stupid game of Truth or Dare. 

‧͙⁺˚ ҉*･༓☾ ҉ ҉ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

_3 years ago_

Silena, the ever-devious grade matchmaker had been watching him with hawk eyes the entirety of the game. He had avoided her piercing gaze in discomfort and hoped she didn’t know about his very obvious crush. Oh, what wishful thinking that had been.

“I am _not_ playing truth or dare,” he insisted vehemently. But one look at Annabeth’s pleading eyes and pout as Silena dragged the blond girl to take a seat on the sand, and he was a goner. The Stolls were notorious menaces, and this game was a convenient excuse for them to unleash the chaos they’d been itching to release. Little did he know, it wasn’t the Stolls he had to worry about. 

Silena’s cunning brown eyes squinted in scrutiny every time he blushed when his limbs brushed against Annabeth’s, who was sitting criss-cross next to him, pressed against his side. Silena raised her dark eyebrows knowingly every time he glanced over and stared at his best friend’s face (the stunning grey eyes, cute scrunched nose, and _very_ pink lips) for a moment too long. He had an inkling of what Silena would do when it was her turn, if she were to choose him. A mixture of dread and excitement pooled in his stomach as he twitched nervously and dug his toes into the sand beneath his feet.

Annabeth, noticing his agitation, leaned over to whisper in his ear (which had _not_ helped his butterflies), “Are you feeling ok? You forget your meds again?” No, he had most definitely not forgotten his meds. His mom made sure he took it every morning after breakfast.

He gave a half-grimace and lied, “Uh, yeah.” Her shrewd eyes told him she didn’t fully believe him. She could tell when he wasn’t telling the truth better than almost anyone, but she nodded her head in understanding anyway and gave the hand closest to her a squeeze. If she touched him one more time, he was almost sure he was going to combust from her proximity.

He subtly shifted in the opposite direction to clear the haze in his mind left from _Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth_. Or at least he had hoped it was subtle. But judging from the way Annabeth caught his movement in her periphery and frowned, he didn’t do such a great job. Silena intently watched this entire interaction, half-amused, half-exasperated.

The anxiety returned almost immediately when he remembered why he was so fidgety and terrified in the first place. She was going to make him do something to admit his feelings, he was sure of it. He had kind of talked about Annabeth to Beckendorf last week, and he doubted Beckendorf would keep anything Silena. Honestly, Silena had probably already known but this confirmation on Percy’s part would give her just the push to try and set them up. And while some tiny, very _very_ small part of his brain was ecstatic at the prospect of getting this secret off his chest, at the possibility of Annabeth returning his feelings, the overwhelming majority of him wanted to dig a hole in the sand, crawl into it, and die.

Why would someone like Annabeth, unfairly pretty, intelligent, kickass, funny Annabeth, ever want to date someone like him? He was a loser. Even after eight years of friendship, he still found himself wondering why she chose him when she could have befriended literally anyone else. Maybe she had approached him on the playground that day out of pity and then she felt bad enough to stick around. Or found him just tolerable enough to spend more time with, mostly cause she liked his other friends. Or maybe she stayed because of how awesome his mom was. That must have been it. His mom _loved_ Annabeth and Annabeth loved her right back. Plus, he knew his mom’s blue cookies were Annabeth’s favorite. Sally always made her extra to take home. His mom was the best maternal figure Annabeth had and he’d seen the younger girl being pulled into his mother’s arms and sniffling “ _Sally_ ,” whenever she was really upset about something and needed more than the comfort he could offer as a best friend. His mom’s hugs were next-level.

He was pulled out of his reverie by a conniving, sly voice trying to get his attention. “Percy,” Silena said, with a kind, misleading smile he didn’t trust for one second.

He tried to gulp down the bile rising in his throat. _Why did he agree to this game?_ Oh right, _Annabeth_. The beginning and end of all his dilemmas. She did her big pleady gray eyes thing and he knew he never stood a chance. She had learned to resist his puppy face but hers still hooked him in every time. It wasn’t fair.

“Truth or dare?” Silena asked, undoubtedly having conjured the perfect trap to ensnare the poorly concealed convictions of his dumb little middle school heart, no matter what option he chose.

“Dare,” he said, clearing his throat uncomfortably.

Silena’s innocent smile slipped into an evil little smirk and he knew he was going to hate the next words that came out of her mouth before she even said them. “I dare you,” she said, leaning forward, “to kiss the prettiest girl at this party.”

Immediately, the circle was filled with snickers, “Ooooh”s, and audible gasps. All of the dares before this point had been relatively harmless. Or they at least weren’t playing with _real_ emotions.

Well, _fuck_. That was worse than he thought it would be. The only thing passing his through his mind was _fuck fuck fuck fuck_ _fuck_.

He would get his revenge on Silena somehow. Perhaps he could convince the Stolls to help…. He shook his head clear of his revenge fantasies, deciding he should probably deal with the problem at hand.

The first being he had never kissed anyone before and hadn’t the slightest clue what he should be doing. The second being Annabeth might figure out his embarrassing feelings if he kissed her, leaving their friendship in ruins. The third being he didn’t want to ruin both their first kisses on a game of _Truth or fucking Dare_. But what choice did he have? If he wimped out, everyone make fun of him, and he didn’t want Annabeth to think less of him. He certainly didn’t want the Stolls to hold it over his head for the rest of the year. Classic middle school peer pressure.

He finally glanced up and was caught off guard by the twelve pairs of eyes staring in his direction. Some curious, some eager, some amused, some calculating. He cowered under their stares. Why did he feel like one of those sacrificial lambs he learned about in Latin that got slaughtered at the altar? He gulped audibly.

He turned to catch Annabeth’s gaze. She had an unidentifiable look in her eyes. They glimmered with fear, maybe a bit of hope...and something else he couldn’t really discern.

She averted her eyes after he caught her gaze, looking almost disappointed. He wondered who she was expecting him to choose.

He cleared his throat for what seemed like the tenth time that evening and pushed away the presence of anyone that wasn’t Annabeth from his mind. He turned to her, every muscle in his body screaming _Don’t do it!_ , as he did.

“Um...Annabeth, can I kiss you?” his voice cracked at the end of his question and he cursed himself for sounding like the biggest loser in existence. Why would she _ever_ want to kiss him? “I know this is,” he paused to clear his throat _again_ , “weird, and it’s totally okay if you don’t want to—“

“Just shut up and kiss me, Seaweed Brain,” she interrupted. Her expression had shifted from disbelieving surprise to mild exasperation over the course of his rambling, but the corner of her lips still curled into a shy smile. Her gray eyes glimmered in a way that made his heart pang painfully against his ribcage.

“Oh. Oh, _oh_ , okay. Yeah. Um, so how—how do we do this? Should I move in front of y—“

Annabeth rolled her eyes, endeared, suppressing her own nerves. She grabbed the collar of his hoodie and pulled the bumbling boy towards her awaiting lips. Percy’s mouth was still for a moment as the shock registered. _Holy shit, he was actually doing this._

As her lips pressed against his a little more insistently ( _god, they were even softer than they looked_ ), he regained enough sense to reciprocate enthusiastically. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do but he followed her lead as they tried to find their rhythm. He did his best to maintain decent technique and judging by the way Annabeth hadn’t pulled away, repulsed, he was doing okay.

He wasn’t sure how long they kissed. His brain was wholly consumed by the intoxicating spell her touch had put him under, every nerve in his body short-circuiting, every fraction of his attention laser-focused on the seamless way her lips melded with his. He could’ve died right then and there without a single complaint. What a way to go.

Someone pointedly cleared their throat and Annabeth sprung off his lips and settled back into her spot, cheeks colored in an _adorable_ shade of pink.

_Get your shit together_ , he told his brain. But once again, he had a hard time thinking of anything but _Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth_. If her casual touch could render him useless, her kiss had ten times the effect.

Percy pulled his dopey gaze away from her embarrassed face to the shit-eating faces watching the two of them in silence. He hoped the reason Annabeth was avoiding eye contact and had closed in on herself wasn’t because she had regretted agreeing to kiss him or was ashamed to have done it so publicly.

Travis, presumably the person who had caused them to break apart, regarded them with a mischievous, infuriating little smirk. Percy wanted to slap the shit out of the other boy for interrupting the best 15 seconds of his life.

“When she said kiss the prettiest girl in the room, she didn’t mean _make out_ with the prettiest girl in the room,” Travis drawled, letting out a low whistle. Some of the others laughed and snickered, while Connor reached over and slapped his back as if to say _Nice one, didn’t know you had it in you_. If Percy’s face could get any redder than it already was, it did. He figured he probably looked like a very unattractive firetruck.

He tried to catch Annabeth’s eyes throughout the rest of the game, but to no avail. She seemed hellbent on ignoring him. _Shit_. _Had he fucked it all up?_ His emotions were going haywire, a large part of him still reeling from essentially making out with his crush who also happened to be his best friend of nine years. Her refusal to acknowledge him just piled onto the heap of confusion coursing his body.

The rest of the evening was a blur. Even with his ADHD, he couldn’t focus on anything else, hands twitching and eyes darting around the seascape to avoid making eye contact with anyone. Silena shot him a look, warm brown eyes laden with sympathy. He gritted his teeth. This was her fault. If she hasn’t been so nosy and meddling—

_Stop_ , he told himself. _This is on you_. His cooling temper gave way for more reasonable thought. If he ruined things with Annabeth, it was mainly his fault, wasn’t it? He was the one who fell for her. He was the one who made the choice to kiss her. He was the one who was too cowardly to confess his feelings. Silena was just trying to help.

He gave the dark-skinned girl a subtle shake of his head, signaling he was fine. But he was far from it. The worry on her face didn’t fade. It seemed she could tell, too.

Once the party came to a close, he and Annabeth trekked back up to the parking lot, the fine grains of sand shifting under his feet. She had occupied herself on her phone, eyes trained on the white screen in front of her, but he noticed she hadn’t scrolled or registered what she was looking at in the slightest. Fine then. If she was going to ignore him, ignore what happened, then he was too. Maybe they could put it all behind them. But his heart was screaming in protest. That was the last thing it wanted.

Annabeth was one of the most important people in his life, his heart be damned. He wasn’t going to jeopardize his relationship with his best friend to try and venture into uncharted territories. He tried to suppress the part of him that wanted to know everything about her on a more intimate level that he already did. He tried not to think about how he wanted to know the way she would roll her eyes, wrap her arms around his neck, and his soundly kiss him whenever he did something stupid. He tried not to think about how he wanted to know the way her silky blonde curls felt under his hands, as he carded it between his fingers as they kissed. He tried not to think about how he wanted to know the new pet names she would call him and what she would let him call her. He tried not to think about how he wanted to know her favorite spot to be kissed, her favorite time to be kissed, her favorite way to be kissed. He tried not to think about how he wanted to know _her_ , every atom that made up her being, every fiber of love woven into her soul, every single little thing that made her tick. The things he could only know if they were together.

But the drive home was silent. His mother didn’t say anything except ask if they enjoyed the party. They had both nodded mutely. As if she had sensed the tension, she smiled understandingly in response and turned the radio up to drown out the white noise in his brain. Annabeth went home that night with a “thank you” directed at Sally and a stiff nod in his direction. They didn’t bring it up again.

It took a few weeks, but the two of them fell into their routine again. They slowly stopped skirting around each other. None of their friends brought it up. But something had changed. Something had fundamentally shifted in their relationship and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. He could tell in the way Annabeth averted her gaze everytime he turned to catch her looking at him, the way that when she laughed at his jokes for a moment too long she abruptly stopped, as if embarrassed, the way she would tense under the warmth of his touch. Percy didn’t know if they would ever return to the same level of comfort they relished in around each other before, and he was disappointed. But a hopeful part of him wondered if it meant something more.

_No_ , he chided himself, resolutely. _Don’t go down that road again_.

And so they graduated middle school, started high school, and pretended to forget about it. Pretend everything was the same as it always was. She got herself a boyfriend her sophomore year. Some sandy haired, blue-eyed junior with broad shoulders, a smug smile, and a pretentious name.

Luke Castellan.

He had never hated anyone so immediately and so intensely before. He tried to hide it around Annabeth, but she could tell. They had gotten into petty arguments over it, where he would make some passive-aggressive comment about the blonde boy and she would bite back in his defense. It was exhausting. Percy wanted her to be happy, more than anything, and maybe Luke made her feel that way. However, he knew he could make her ten times happier than Luke ever could, be a more thoughtful boyfriend than Luke ever could, knew her better than Luke ever could. But he held his tongue.

Eventually Annabeth’s relationship with Luke dwindled. Apparently, it had been on the rocks for a while. They broke up the summer before junior year. It seemed out of the blue. She never told him why. And he never asked. Her relationship was kind of a sore spot for them. He did his best to cheer her up after the break-up, made some jokes at Luke’s expense, saying how he couldn’t handle all of her anyway. She would give him a sad, little smile and laugh weakly, but he could tell her heart wasn’t into it.

It made him wonder who had ended things.

The look in her eyes wasn’t one of heartbreak, not the kind you experience when you break up with your boyfriend. It was a forlorn kind of longing. The kind that didn’t miss what you once held in the palm of your hand, but rather the kind that yearned for something that was never within reach in the first place. He saw it every time he looked into a mirror.

‧͙⁺˚ ҉*･༓☾ ҉ ҉ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

“Annabeth,” he breathed, an easy grin on his face, as he pulled the door wide open to let her into the apartment. She was one of the first to arrive because, well, she was Annabeth. She was practically a part of the family and had insisted on helping set up for the New Year’s party even though his mom had reassured her it wasn’t necessary.

He closed the door behind her and helped her shrug off her winter coat. Standing there in her cream-colored sweater, tip of her nose reddened from the chilly winter air, strands of flyaways escaping from her ponytail as a result of the frosty wind, she was the sun. A blinding smile that could light up the dark side of the moon. Warm-toned skin and honey hair like powdered gold washing over a grassy hillside. Playful eyes that sparkled and glinted like they were rays of sunlight reflecting off the glass of a windowpane. The blush on her cheeks a rosy sunset flooding over the gentle waters of the evening sea. She was the sun on a cold day. The kind of day when he’s burrowed indoors and sunlight streams into his apartment through paneled windows, casting a column of brightness across the hardwood of his floor, and he goes to stand in it, basking in the comforting warmth that washes over his body, a warmth that spreads down to his toes. 

And the world was in constant freefall, spinning around the sun. The beautifully endless cycle of sunrise and sunset, unchanging, unwavering. Each one as beautiful as the next.

He stepped forward to hug her, breathing in the fruity scent of her hair and the flowery scent of her skin that surprisingly complimented each other.

“Hey,” she greeted, voice muffled by his sweater. He reluctantly pulled back to return the greeting.

“Oh! I almost forgot,” she reached for the coat rack and stuffed her hands into the pocket, pulling out two pairs of glasses. He smothered a fond smile. It was one of those wonky plastic things that were created in the shape of the numbers of the upcoming year. The kind you could hardly see out of and made you look like a fool. He gladly accepted it and slipped it onto his nose.

“You look good,” she observed, with a giggle.

“I know,” he felt a blush spread across his cheeks even though he knew she was joking.

She rolled her eyes and clasped his elbow in her hand, dragging him into the kitchen so she could see his mother.

His mom looked up from kneading the dough at the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Annabeth! Sweetheart! Oh, look at you. Doesn’t she just look so beautiful, Percy?” she said innocently, as Annabeth’s face heated in embarrassment.

_Really, Mom?_ Part of him wanted to walk out the door and never come back. Percy could never hate his mother but in this moment, he was thoroughly annoyed with her. Shooting her a quick glare when Annabeth couldn’t see, he cleared his throat and muttered, “Um, yeah. You look great. Beige suits you.”

_Beige suits you?_ _Are you fucking serious?_ He never wanted the ground to swallow him whole more.

She gave him a weird look but accepted the compliment, nonetheless. “Uh thanks. You wanna go hang the lights up and I’ll help your mom in the kitchen?”

He wasn’t sure why she was so eager to get rid of him, and he felt a little hurt, but he understood the two women needed their alone time.

“I’ll leave you two to it.” With that, he left for the stairs to go get the lights out of the storage room.

As soon as he disappeared from view, Sally turned to the younger girl who was leaning her elbows on the counter in distress.

“I know that look. Talk to me.”

“It’s just—I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” she confessed. “Everytime I see him I just want to hold his hands, I want to be able to let people know that he’s mine. Not just my best friend, but my person. In every way. And I can’t keep pretending I don’t feel the way I do.” Annabeth wringed her hands nervously. She hadn’t meant to say all that, but Sally’s comforting, reassuring presence had let the floodgates open.

“Honey, I don’t have to be his mother to see how much he cares about you,” Sally placed her hand on top of the girl’s.

“Well, yeah. I mean, he’s my best friend. Of course we care about each other.”

“You know what I mean, sweetheart. I can tell you without hesitation that you’re the first thought on his mind when he wakes up and the last before he falls asleep. Hell, I’ve heard him mumble in his sleep about you on multiple occasions. There’s not a second in the day that goes by where he doesn’t think of you. I think that’s sign enough for you to know that he feels the same way.”

“He talks about me in his sleep?” Annabeth’s mind was racing, seizing on that random detail.

Sally laughed heartily. “He would probably kill me for telling you this, but yes. I don't even know if he knows it. The boy loves you, Annabeth. He has for as long as he’s known you.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

Sally gave her a pointed look. “I’m his mother. You can trust me about these kinds of things. Hell, I’m sure your friend Silena would agree.”

Annabeth waved her hand, “Silena’s just a romantic.”

“And I’m a realist,” Sally returned, squeezing Annabeth’s hand. “Did you know Percy keeps a picture of you in his notebook?”

Annabeth blinked. “What?”

“Oh yeah, he’s had it for years. Well, not the same one. He rotated it out every few years whenever you take a nice new one. I think the one that’s currently in there is from when you went on vacation to see that monument. He stared at that email for a little too long for it to be platonic admiration.”

“Oh,” she said dumbly, cheeks coloring again.

“Do you believe me now?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that—well, I have no idea how to go about this. I mean, if he really liked me, he would’ve made a move all those years ago, right?”

“Didn’t he? He did choose to kiss you, after all.”

“Well, he might’ve just done that cause he didn’t want to hurt my feelings or something.”

Sally put down the dish towel she was holding in one hand and moved to place both her palms on Annabeth’s. “Annabeth, honey, you have to stop trying to find every excuse in the book to convince yourself he doesn’t like you. The facts are all laid out right there. It’s up to you to choose to see it and do something about it.”

The blond took a deep, shaky breath. “I thought I could get over my crush by dating Luke. But I think that just made my feelings that much more painfully obvious. I never felt the way around him that I did with Percy. We couldn’t laugh about the same stuff, he never understood me like Percy did. Even his hugs were worse. Colder, somehow. More detached.”

Sally smiled, gently. “Percy and Luke aren’t the same person. And that’s okay. One person may be able to make you feel things someone else can’t. There’s nothing wrong with that. But you’re saying you felt more of a romantic spark with Percy than you did with Luke?”

Sighing, Annabeth nodded. “Percy just gets me. I suppose that’s what happens when you’ve been friends with someone for so long. But I never have to explain myself to him. He knows what I need when I need it without me saying anything. With Percy, I’m never worried that I might lose him, that he might walk out of my life like everyone else. Even when we fight, I know at the end of the day I can still walk right back into his arms and he’d welcome it. I don’t feel that with anyone else.”

“Well, you said it yourself. The boy would never leave you. He would never intentionally hurt you. You have his whole heart, Annabeth. Maybe it’s time you show him he has yours, too. God knows he isn’t going to make the first move.”

They both laughed, softly. “Yeah,” she breathed. “Yeah, I think I will. Should I do it tonight?”

“Whenever you feel ready. There’s no pressure.”

“I feel like if I don’t do something about it tonight, I may never feel this brave again.”

“Then you know I’m rooting for you. New Year is as good a time as any,” Sally grinned.

“Thank you for this, Sally. For letting me talk to you about this stuff...even when the person in question is your son. And for keeping this from Percy.”

Sally waved her hand, dismissively. “Nonsense, sweetheart. You’re as much of my kid as he is. You can come to me about anything.” The brown-haired woman leaned forward to press a motherly kiss to the teenager’s forehead, lifting her arms to place them on her shoulders. “Now, go. You know what you need to do.”

Annabeth smiled nervously, eyes shining in gratitude and appreciation. She’s got this.

Eventually, they had finished set-up, and the party was in full function. They had invited a lot of Percy and Annabeth’s close friends and some of Sally’s writer friends. The growing pit of nerves in Annabeth’s stomach drowned out the loud chatter, clang of glasses, and shouts of excitement reverberating off the living room walls. She found it hard to focus on anything that wasn’t what she was about to do.

Percy could sense her anxiousness. He turned to her with a frown, “You okay, Beth? You wanna go get some air?” he reached a hand out to place on her arm, and the heat of the contact seemed scalding. She jumped at the touch and he pulled his hand away in regret. She already missed it.

“No, no, not right now. I’m good,” she plastered what she hoped was a reassuring smile on her face, prayingPercy wouldn’t be able to see through her facade, but that was just wishful thinking.

He didn’t look convinced, but he just reminded her, “Alright. But if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. You know that goes without saying.”

“‘Course.”

And with that, they turned back to the party, conversing with their friends, though Annabeth did a lot more listening than talking. That conversation with Percy did nothing to put her mind at ease. It just reminded her why she was in this position in the first place. Why she was head-over-heels in love with him. Her family didn’t even come close to caring about her in the way he did. It was simultaneously a heartbreaking and heartwarming thought.

Annabeth lost herself in the party festivities, although time seemed to be passing by slower than usual. She glanced at the clock. _11:56_. It was now or never.

She walked over to where a small crowd was gathered by the TV to watch the ball drop, drinks and food in hand. She located Percy, who Beck and the Stolls had dragged away ten minutes ago for god knows what.

“Hey, Perce. Can we take that breather now?”

He looked surprised. “Now?” But he recovered quickly, “Yeah, yeah, of course. Let’s go.”

She pretended not to see the sly look Connor threw her way, the way Silena caught her eye whispered into Beckendorf’s ear, or the wink Sally gave her from the opposite room. She took Percy’s hand in her own, feeling the warmth of his skin against hers, and the way they slotted so perfectly against each other.

Annabeth led them to the roof. Percy trailed behind, equal parts concerned and confused.

“What’s up, Beth? You okay? Did something happen?”

Annabeth laughed, with little humor in her voice. “That depends on how the next couple minutes go.”

“Oh?” his eyebrows furrowed, clearly lost.

“Look, Percy, I—I don’t know how to go about saying this without it sounding super awkward. I mean, I don’t really have a speech prepared. Maybe I should’ve? God, that would’ve been better. So much for planning,” she muttered under her breath, the jumbled array of thoughts in her head taking her on a tangent.

“Annabeth,” Percy reaches his arms out to steady her. “Slow down, Wise Girl.”

She stared up at him, into those gorgeous blue-green eyes, that swirled and stormed like deep ocean waves. His hair was lit up in the white backglow of a fluorescent light on the roof. The silvery crescent shining distantly in the sky had nothing on him and how he looked in that moment. At any moment. Him and his look of concern. Concern for her. Etched blatantly onto his face, like she and everything that she stood for was ingrained so deeply within him that the very nature of his soul, his love, began and ended with her.

He was the tide, rising and falling at the moon’s beckoning. The irresistible pull of the cycle, unbroken, unwavering.

_10, 9, 8_

She could faintly hear a chanting echoing into the still night air, a steady countdown full of anticipation, full of hope for a brighter new year. A goodbye but also a hello. An ending but also a beginning.

_7, 6, 5_

She wasn’t fully aware of her movements. She stepped forward, closing the distance between them. His eyes searched hers and she peered back into his. An undeniable gravity. A force of nature that was unstoppable, yet fluctuating.

_4, 3, 2_

She opened her mouth as if to speak but couldn’t find the words. She heard a new year getting closer and closer, a new beginning getting closer and closer. _Fuck it_ , she thought. Maybe she couldn’t convey it with words. But she _could_ with a display of affection.

_1_

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his body, leaning up to capture his lips in a mind-melting kiss. They hardly registered the defeating cheers from the apartments below, from the strangers shouting in celebration on the surrounding streets, the only fireworks they cared for the one between their lips, their bodies. His surprise gave in to sweet temptation, a quenched thirst, a resolved longing. He pulled her into his embrace. They were home.

A new beginning with the same, unaltered convictions.

He was the Earth to her Sun, the Tide to her Moon. He lived for her and she lived for him.

Maybe that’s how it was meant to be.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my tumblr @simpforannabeth for edits and more stupid content! (previously @riptidethesword)


End file.
